Unlocking French Culture: 7 Idiomatic Expressions You Can’t Afford to Miss Bonjour!  Are you ready to learn some quirky French expressions that will make you sound like a native? Then, you’re in the right place! In this blog post, we’ll explore seven common French idioms that will spice up your language skills and give you a glimpse into the richness of French culture. But first, let’s talk about idioms. Idiomatic expressions are like secret passwords that reveal a society’s values, beliefs, and experiences. They’re a way to communicate complex ideas, emotions, and concepts without ..read more

Discovering New Year in Japan The Lunar New Year, also known as Chinese New Year, is a widely celebrated holiday across East Asia and the world, falling between late January and early February, which marks the beginning of the new lunar calendar. Countries such as South Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China observe this holiday with their unique cultural twists. In Japan, the Lunar New Year has been influenced by Chinese traditions, but has also developed distinctly Japanese customs. Before the Meiji period, Japan followed lunisolar calendars, similar to the Chinese version. However, i ..read more

The Language Lover’s playbook: Habits for successful Learning Languages have their own rules, such as grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and so on. Learning a new language can, at times, be a bit difficult. In this blog, I am going to give some tips on how to make it easier for you when you decide to learn a new language. Always make notes The obvious one is to always take notes. But never underestimate the power of writing down notes in a notebook or on your electronic devices. Not only do you make your lessons more engaging, but you also make it easier for yourself to absorb the information ..read more

Beyond Being Multilingual: Unlocking New Opportunities Through Developing Plurilingual Competence In this modern world where societies are getting increasingly interconnected, the ability for global citizens to communicate effectively has become more crucial than ever. With English being the lingua franca of the world, there is less of a ‘barrier’ existing among people around the world to communicate. Yet, we still observe many situations where being able to ‘speak a common language’ at times, fail to truly help speakers connect with each other on a genuine level despite active listening. Thi ..read more

Ways to Stay Focused While Studying Do you find it difficult to stay motivated and focused on your studies? It is no secret that maintaining your focus while studying can be difficult at times, whether you are studying for an exam or simply working on an assignment. In this blog, I am going to share a few tips that could benefit you and help improve in maintaining your focus while studying. Create a suitable study enviornment It is very important to create a study environment that is suitable for you. If you’re studying at home, make space for yourself where you can easily place the things yo ..read more

Why You Should Start Using Mind Maps Have you ever found yourself stuck while studying for an important exam? Have you ever found it difficult to fully understand or remember the content of your studies? Or, have you ever found yourself out of ideas for an important project, whether it is for school or work? Believe me, I have been in that situation before and I think I have a few tips to share with you. I have tried so many different ways in order to help myself with my studies but to no avail. That was the case until I started implementing mind maps into my study routine. Simply put, using ..read more

The Mid-Autumn Festival (zhongqiu – 中秋節), also known as the Moon Festival or Mooncake Festival), is here again. It takes place on the 15th day of the 8th month in the Lunar calendar, when the moon is supposedly the fullest and brightest.  It is a traditional festival celebrated in Chinese culture and many Asian culture share the tradition.   The origins of the festival derive from the custom of moon worship.  You may refer to our blog post to learn more. Chinese people is immensely fond of the Moon.  Well, firstly, don’t forget that the Lunar calendar is a calendar ba ..read more

An idiom is a widely used expression or saying that contains a figurative meaning which is completely different from the phrase’s actual meaning. For example when one says “Bite the Bullet” then the direct meaning of the phrase would mean that someone would take a bullet to keep it between his/her teeth and take a bite of it, but that doesn’t make any sense, this is because the expression “Bite the Bullet” is an idiom which means that one decides to do something difficult or something that one has been putting away from some time now. So, an idiom is a phrase or expression which has a figurati ..read more

School Interviews Need Not Be So Stressful School interviews can be a very worrying and stressful time for both students and parents. Competition for places can be fierce and failure to get selected to the right schools can seriously affect future academic and career plans. For this reason, parents often turn to specialist organizations or agencies for help or find interview tutorials on the internet. Unfortunately, some of these can be quite expensive and at the end of the day a waste of money. The problem is it is quite easy to get a list of the most common interview questions and prepare a ..read more

4 Common Health and Fitness Urban Myths I shall begin by explaining what an urban myth is. It’s basically a story or statement that we have read or been taught and so believe it to be true, especially when we see or hear it repeated in or from reliable sources. My favourite example is the belief that the Great Wall of China can be seen from space. I remember being taught this at school and seeing it often listed as a ‘did you know’ fact. However, if you think about it logically, the Great Wall is no wider than a normal road and how many roads can be seen from space!  Urban Myths are actu ..read more